vintage versus modern speakers

any modern "artisanal" brand of speakers that might be worth looking at? especially made in the US ?
I heard of ZU....Thoughts?

That's all depends on your amp.
Your amp will determine what you should be considering.

Rockanroller- There are plenty of modern "artisanal" U.S. speaker makers. Here is a totally random list off the top of my head (well, not totally random, definitely skewed toward tube-friendly designs). Per Paraneer, if you give us an amp maker or amp type AND importantly a price range, the list can become more focused, but here are just a few:
Tyler
Green Mountain
Audiokinesis
Selah
Fritz
Merlin
Geddes
Beveridge
Audience
Ohm
Daedalus Audio
Devore Fidelity
Classic Audio Loudspeakers
Soundlab
KCS Custom Loudspeakers

if you step across the border to Canada, you can add quite a few more, two of which are Coincident and Ref 3A.

My apologies to all speaker builders I've left out. Others will fill in the blanks.

I bought my AR9's new in 1981, and at the time the critics agreed that you could buy bigger and more expensive speakers but not better ones. And Infinities and ADS were around at the time, and the AR line-up outperformed every other speaker I heard IMO.

I was passionate over my 9's. Their dual ll" subs could blow you away; the upper bass-lower mids could send shivers down your spine; and they could talk. But the 4 ohm impedence and large woofers made them so frickin hard to drive (expensive as well). The crossovers died some time ago so then I ran the 90's--one size down. STill frickin hard to drive with my hk990 (150w/8ohms;300w/4ohms.

I picked up a pair of precursers to the the Revel line for cheap on audiogon last fall, probably the first pair of speakers Dr. Floyd Toole designed for Harman--100lb 3-way floor standers. There is no doubt that they are very clean, low distortion speakers compared with my vintage AR's.

That's my sad story. I'm transitioning to the 21st century. My stubborness had to yield to reality. No more vintage speakers for me.

You have been given good, solid advice. New speakers are definitely better, dollar for dollar, than what you'll get from 30 yr. old speakers.

And your amp now dictates the appropriate speakers to look at....

-RW-